STANLEY have broken a few hoodoos this season - such as finally beating Bury and Rochdale - but Dagenham turned the tables on them.

In eight previous meetings with John Still’s side, the Reds have only lost once and hold an impressive record against their old Conference foes.

But it’s the Daggers who were celebrating a rare win against Stanley to surge to the top of the league table - while boss John Coleman was bemoaning the one that got away.

Stanley have played six out of the top seven teams and have lost to five of them - their solitary win coming as they broke their duck against Rochdale.

But Coleman will know they could and should have seen off Dagenham with veteran keeper Tony Roberts pulling off a stunning save from Bobby Grant, the post keeping out John Miles and defender Scott Doe twice clearing off the line to deny the Reds.

And it was left to a deflected Mark Arber header six minutes before the break to seal the tie for Daggers

After the match, boss Still was talking about the "fairytale" that sees his budget team at the top of the pile.

Coleman, meanwhile, after a few nightmares off the pitch this season, says he is furious his side cannot make his dreams come true.

"I have no complaints about the result, they took their chances and we squandered a couple of chances," said the Reds boss. "We did not play well in the first half, it was insipid, and although we had possession in the second half, we never really hurt them.

"We didn’t show the appetite of previous games and we can’t pick and choose our matches to perform.

"I have to take some of the blame as it is up to me and Jimmy (Bell) to make sure they don’t fall below the standards and possibly we didn’t motivate them enough for this game.

"We can’t lay the blame on any individuals, we didn’t take our chances and didn’t do our jobs on a set-piece."

He continued: "Pound for pound Dagenham are not better than us but they know how to win games - it’s not luck that they are top of the table. People say we are flying as we have a good home record of late but we are not high enough in the table.

"It never even entered my head we wouldn’t score against Dagenham and I cannot believe we didn’t. We didn’t test their keeper enough."

Their goalie is Roberts, now 40, but who Stanley fans treat with a grudging respect as, despite getting some unkind chants from the fans about his weight, he doesn’t mind.

"I love coming to Accrington," he said. "It goes back to non-league days and I love the banter. I don’t mind what they say as I just love playing football. For us to be top of the league is brilliant."

And Still was quick to point out to the Stanley fans: "He is not fat!"

But the Daggers could afford to laugh and joke after the game while Coleman kept his players in the dressing room for over half an hour with a big inquest into what went wrong over the previous 90 minutes.

And the basic answer was that, after praising his side’s attacking flair this season and only saying last week there were always "goals in his team" this time luck and some top defending meant they just couldn’t find the back of the net.

The upright kept out a Miles curler while the outstretched leg of Doe denied Grant an opener with Roberts beaten.

The visiting keeper pulled off a wonder save to keep out a point-blank Grant shot while, in the follow up, Doe cleared Jimmy Ryan’s blast off the line.

Defender Edwards felt he was pushed in the dying minutes by Doe for a penalty but referee Carl Boyeson, who called the game on after two pitch inspections, wasn’t having any of it.

Other than that, Stanley pressed forward and enjoyed the majority of the possession but they didn’t overly stretch the extrovert keeper.

At the other end, Dunbavin - who has survived a knock to his ankle after a fourth minute clash with Paul Benson - pulled off a diving save to keep out Daggers top scorer Benson while the hitman also hit the post with the Reds keeper scrambling the ball to him before it crossed the line.

The goal which came wasn’t as spectacular as any of the chances but it was the one that counted. Danny Green’s corner fell to unmarked captain Arber at the far post and he directed his header beyond Dunbavin via the back of the player who was meant to be marking him, Michael Symes.

"I am more annoyed that disappointed as we have let ourselves down," said Coleman. "We look at Dagenham and the resources they have got and I have got full respect for John Still and what he has done there.

"He said he felt the game could have gone either way and it could - but these are games we should be winning at home."